I'm fine with starting in a prison or pretty much anywhere, as long as they make the tutorial shorter or give us the option to skip it altogether. It's quite annoying for the console players who can't mod it out. Actually, getting out of your prison cell could be played out like an escape-the-room type of game. Once you are past the cell door, the world opens and you can ease yourself into the main quest by listening to rumors or something less scripted in that line.

Another point of the prison is that you dont see how vast and open the world is till a little later on. So that when you do finally get out, you can say "WOW!" and not World of Warcraft "WOW"... which make me think, can i really hold back a year of not looking at screen shots of the open world so that when i do play it, i can go DOUBLE "WOW!!"???

To answer my question, i dont think i can.

If I have to start in prison, then it should be because I was caught by someone , not because I made something bad.
More Morrowind-ish start, less Oblivion-ish start.

A prison start is fine, though I'd prefer it was a little more concice than either Oblivion's or Fallout's.

PS. Daggerfall didn't start in a prison.

That's true, because I use the same character for each story, and having to create a reason for why she was imprisoned again and again gets irritating, like a fly that I keep having to shooo away.

Having Skyrim start in a prison would showcase the Bethesda-ness of the game. I hope we start off in prison again, and I'm confident that Beth will come up with a fun and innovative way to do it.

Daggerfall did start you out imprisoned (by a cave-in), and in a dungeon. The specifics of how you got there aren't quite the same, but in many ways I'd call Morrowind the odd one out -- you got to see the sky within the first minute of gameplay, unlike any of the other three.

Anyway, I agree that Oblivion left a little too much out. If you were in THAT prison, how did you get there and why didn't anyone local recognize you? The other three all had plausible excuses for that, and little to no implication that you were actually a criminal. In Arena you were imprisoned for political reasons; in Daggerfall by a random act of nature; in Morrowind by the Blades so they could ship you to Vvardenfell. In all three cases, you were either explicitly not local, or easily assumed as such. None of these backgrounds force a particular character upon you, but they all answer some questions that would otherwise nag. In Oblivion... well, you're just a prisoner. Stop right there, criminal scum!

I frankly loathed Oblivion's character generation system. I've got these amazing birthsign powers, but I forgot! Really? Come on! That's almost excusable for class abilities if you assume you're only there because you're REALLY drunk, but in service of the class-suggestion system, everyone had to start with a couple of (identical) spells, and that utterly revolted me. Morrowind's in-engine character generation was innovative and didn't interfere with the game any more or less than the pre-gameplay generation of Arena and Daggerfall. Oblivion took it several steps too far. Dial it back a notch, please.

Honestly not sure whether I prefer Morrowind's method of throwing you straight into society, or the other three with their immediate dungeon crawls. Tradition makes me fond of the latter, but after your first dozen characters it does get a bit repetitive whereas in Morrowind I could wander in any direction. Morrowind was also the least heavy-handed in kicking you onto the main plot, and I'd definitely like to see similar treatment even with a dungeon start.

Your hypothesis doesn't account for Morrowind, which presents you with outdoors seconds after the game begins, and allows you free access to the world a few minutes later.

THANK THE NINE FOR TES V FINALLY BEING ANNOUNCED ! *cough* anyway...I like the prison start thing, it's tradition and a good one at that. Then again for OB I had a mod installed to start on a ship, instead of the prison because the prison thing took so much time, meaning it got a little boring after a year or so but really I'm sure what Beth does is awesome anyway, so can't wait to see

I like the prison thing, and I suspect your character will be a prisoner of war.

As to how Lydia's backstory works? Well, it all depends on how far this game is from OB. She'll either be Gregreo's great-granddaughter or descendant who had heard of his exploits and wishes to mimic him.

What if you start out as a prisoner on an island being referred to only as number six?

"I am not a number, I am a free man"

Wow, I voted Yes so enthusiastically I almost forgot about poor jiub...who should definitely be there.